Clark County open house will focus on Leichner Landfill planning project

Clark County will hold an open house from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to give residents a chance to learn about long-term planning for the closed Leichner Landfill and adjacent parcels.

The open house will be at the Vancouver Church of Christ, 9019 N.E. 86th St.

Last year, the county hired Maul Foster & Alongi Inc. of Vancouver to lead a master planning effort for the 74-acre landfill and 46 acres of adjacent property. The process will evaluate potential reuses, including market demand and infrastructure needed for development. It will not identify specific users or provide detailed building layouts.

Redevelopment options for the closed landfill will be limited for at least another five to 10 years. The landfill continues to settle as buried waste decomposes and produces methane gas, which is collected through an above-ground network of pipes and then burned.

A 35-acre site to the south of the landfill, known as the Leichner Campus, has significantly more development potential. The property is flat, has no buried garbage and is zoned for light-industrial development.

“We need to work with the community and craft a vision for an underused site,” Don Benton, the county’s environmental services director, said in a news release. “Any reuses cannot interfere with the landfill’s post-closure monitoring and maintenance, but nearby vacant land can and should be put to more productive use.”

Leichner Landfill is east of Northeast 94th Avenue and north of Padden Parkway. It was the county’s primary landfill until it was closed in the early 1990s. Today, most of the county’s garbage is barged up the Columbia River to Finley Buttes Landfill near Boardman, Ore.

More information on the Leichner Landfill and adjacent properties is available at www.clark.wa.gov/leichner. Comments can be submitted by email to leichner@clark.wa.gov.